


under the sea

by BeStillMySlashyHeart



Series: same script, different lines [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Andy/Quynh is more implied, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Gen, M/M, Mild Gore, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:28:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25369888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeStillMySlashyHeart/pseuds/BeStillMySlashyHeart
Summary: Nile cleared her throat. “There was a man. He was drowning." The others froze. “He- he was in a coffin? I think? And he was drowning and- and trying to scream. And trying to get out.” The others exchanged looks, half misery, half pained. “Did- do you know him?”“His name is Yusuf.”
Relationships: Andy | Andromache the Scythian/Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: same script, different lines [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853176
Comments: 131
Kudos: 2449





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I had an angsty thought of what if rather than Andy and Quynh that were captured it was Joe and Nicky. Thus one of them were placed in an iron maiden under the sea. And post-movie the one who was trapped goes after the one who got away?
> 
> ...once again I cannot stick to a prompt...

Nile shot up in bed gasping for air. A moment later the lights in the room turned on, the others having woken up. “Sorry,” she panted. There was no reason for her to be out of breath, no reason for her to pant and gasp like she needed every lungful she could get, and yet. 

Once it was apparent that there was no danger, the man known as Booker flopped back onto his bed with a grunt. “Get some sleep,” he told her. Nile nodded at him in reply even though he wasn’t looking at her. She knew she wasn’t going back to sleep, not after that nightmare, but some part of her was hardwired to be polite to a man who had welcomed her into his home and given her a place to sleep.

“Sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to wake anyone.”

There was a world weary sigh from the far bed. “What was it?” Nile looked over to see Andy sitting on the edge of the bed rubbing at her eyes.

“It’s nothing,” Nile tried to brush off. “Just a bad dream.” Booker stilled in the bed next to her, his fruitless shuffles to get comfortable ceasing at her words. Nile looked at him then back at Andy to find the older woman eyeing her carefully. “It’s nothing,” she said again. 

Andy looked like she was going to let it drop then at the last minute shook her head. “Tell us,” she urged. “That’s what we’re here for.”

“I don’t remember that in my job description,” Booker scoffed. Andy reached out and smacked him before nodding at Nile in encouragement.

Nile cleared her throat. “There was a man-”

“Oh that kind of dream, huh?” This time when Andy reached out to smack Booker, Nile kicked out and hit him on the other side. 

“He was drowning,” Nile continued. The others froze. “He- he was in a coffin? I think? And he was drowning and- and trying to scream. And trying to get out.” The others exchanged looks, half misery, half pained. “Did- do you know him?”

“His name is Yusuf.” Nile whirled to find a man standing in the doorway behind her, his face shrouded in a hood. Underneath, his eyes were old and weary and a little bit broken. “And you must be Nile.”

Nile didn’t know what to say. There was a rustle of fabric as Andy threw her blankets off and rounded the beds, her arms outstretched to greet the man. “Hey,” she said quietly, far softer than Nile had ever heard her speak. “You made it.” The man let her hug him but only offered a half-hearted embrace in return. 

“You said it was important.” The man’s voice was accented, like he wasn’t used to speaking in English.

“It is,” Andy told him. She stepped back and waved at Nile. “We’ve got a new one.”

“I see that,” the man nodded at her in greeting but offered nothing else.

“Nile, this is Nicky,” Andy introduced. “He’s like us, too.”

Booker got out of bed, apparently resigned to not getting any more sleep tonight, and strode past the man with barely a nod in greeting. “Nicky,” he tossed over his shoulder.

“Sebastien,” Nicky replied. Nile furrowed her brow. Sebastien?

Andy sighed. “Coffee?” Nicky nodded in acquiescence and when Andy turned to her, Nile did too. She left for the kitchen with a gentle squeeze of Nicky’s shoulder.

She and Nicky stared at each other for an awkward moment before there was another rustle of fabric as Quynh got out of bed. Nile looked over her shoulder only to turn around again immediately when she saw that Quynh had to pull on some clothes. Nile watched as Nicky softened under Quynh’s approach, his shoulders sloping slightly and his eyes lightening.

Quynh didn’t say anything in greeting, just wrapped both of her arms around his neck and let him hug her tightly in return. When they didn’t pull away, Nile took it as her cue to leave and shimmied her way out of the room without disturbing them. 

“So,” Nile said slowly when she entered the kitchen. “There’s more of us?” When she’d met Andy, the other woman had only mentioned Quynh and Booker.

Andy set several mugs full of coffee on the table and sat down with a heavy sigh. “Yes.”

Nile sat down and pulled one of the mugs close. “You lied to me.”

“Yes.”

“It’s for your own good,” Booker added. He was hunched over his own mug. “Too much information at once makes your brain hurt. Trust me.”

Nile did, oddly enough, but that didn’t mean she liked being lied to. “How many more are there?”

“None,” Andy replied. “Just Nicky and Yusuf.”

“So Yusuf is…”

“Trapped somewhere on the bottom of the ocean,” Booker told her. He took a long sip. “The dreams won’t go away,” he warned. “Not until we meet him in person.”

Something lodged in Nile’s chest. Earlier, Booker had said he died in 1812 so if he had been having the dreams since then… “How long has he been down there?”

Booker and Andy exchanged a look. “About five hundred years,” Andy admitted. Nile felt like she wanted to throw up. “There’s a downside to not dying,” she said sardonically. “But we weren’t going to spring that on you right away.”

“What happened to him?”

Andy looked past her to where the bedroom was. “Nicky and Yusuf were together in a time and place where people didn’t like two men being together, especially if one of them was brown.” She swallowed thickly. “They tried to kill them. A couple of- well, more than a couple of times. It took me and Quynh weeks to get to them but by the time we did they had decided more drastic measures were necessary. They locked Yusuf in an iron coffin and took him out to sea. Dumped him overboard somewhere.” She shook her head. “We don’t know where. Nicky’s been looking ever since but so far-” she shrugged. “No one on the ship could say for sure where he’d been dumped overboard and with ocean currents and the technology available until recently...it hasn’t been an easy search.”

“But he’s still looking? Even after all this time?”

“He won’t stop,” Booker told her. There was something in his expression that Nile couldn’t figure out but she wasn’t sure it was altogether pleasant. “I’ve only met him a handful of times, when Andy or Quynh can drag him away from his search to help us out on a mission. As soon as it’s over, he goes right back to it.”

“Perhaps I simply do not like your company,” Nicky remarked calmly as he and Quynh joined them. They sat down in the empty chairs between Andy and Nile, Nicky between the two older women.

Booker’s lips twisted and he opened his mouth to say something but Quynh shot him a look that had his jaw snapping shut a moment later. 

“So,” Nicky asked,” what exactly is the problem?”

Nile listened carefully as Andy outlined the situation, even though they’d already been through it once before. As she spoke, Nile tried to get a read on Nicky but the man shot her a stony look that had her reconsider. 

When Andy was done and Nicky had asked his questions and the conversation disappeared, Nile desperately needed air and some space. It had been a very long two days and she was dealing with it as best she could but finding out that immortality could mean dying over and over again for hundreds of years had hit something deep inside her and everything was starting to get to be too much.

She pushed her chair back and took her mug to the sink before looking around the room, trying to get her bearings. She knew the area they were in was connected to the church but there were several doors leading outward and she wasn’t sure which was the correct one.

“What are you looking for?” Quynh asked kindly.

“How do I get to the church?” Nicky scoffed derisively. Nile frowned. “What?”

He rose from his seat, shaking his head. “The church is that way,” he pointed at a door on the opposite side of the room. “But your god cannot help you. He is not there. And if he is, he does not care.”

“Nicky,” Andy said softly. 

Nicky shook his head and went for the bedroom. “Wake me up when it is time to kill people.” The door closed softly behind him.

“What’s his problem?” Nile stared after him.

“He lost Yusuf,” Quynh said, like that explained everything. It didn’t, but Nile didn’t think she was going to get a different answer so she crossed the room and entered the church through the door Nicky had indicated. 

It was a world away from the room she had just left. The tension seeped out of her just as she left it behind. She wasn’t Catholic, had never appreciated the setting of a cathedral for her prayers, but she couldn’t deny that the place felt holy, no matter that it had been abandoned. Nile sat in one of the pews and took deep breaths, letting her mind calm. When she felt settled for the first time in days, she pulled out her phone and stared at the contact for her mom. 

“That’s a bad idea,” Andy warned. Nile jumped, not having heard her approach. Andy nudged her shoulder and Nile scooted over to allow her room to sit. 

“I have family,” Nile defended.

“So did Booker,” Andy replied. “He stayed in touch until they all died and-” she shook her head. “It’s a bad idea.”

Nile sniffed and shook her head. She had so many questions, so many things she wanted to say, that she didn’t know where to start. 

“Why doesn’t Nicky believe in God?” She asked. Nile blinked, surprised with herself. She hadn’t realized that was weighing on her mind.

Andy braced her arms on the back of the pew in front of them and dropped her head. “He used to. He fought in the Crusades,” she revealed. “Believed in God enough to fight a war in his name.”

“What changed?” She asked.  _ Will it change like that for me? _ , she wanted to ask

“Nicky and Yusuf met in the Crusades. They found out they were immortal by killing each other and then waking up to do it again and again. Eventually, they fell in love and after that they were inseparable. For most of us, it took a long time to find each other but Nicky and Yusuf had each other from the very beginning. Nicky used to call it fate or, or destiny.” She smiled sadly. “Then Yusuf was taken from him and Nicky stopped believing in all of that.” Andy sighed and sat back, her shoulders brushing Nile’s. “He used to be different. Used to believe in the goodness of the world.” The man Nile had met did not seem like a man who believed in anything. He didn’t much seem like he even believed in living. “Quynh and I helped him look for about 50 years before we gave up. There was just no way to find him. But Nicky can’t stop.”

“Can you find him now? With today’s technology?”

“We wouldn’t even know where to start looking,” Andy confessed. “Nicky’s looked everywhere we thought even halfway plausible and then he went looking farther out. It’s been five hundred years, Nile.”

“But he’s down there,” Nile protested. “He’s drowning, over and over and over again.”

“I know,” Andy told her. “Booker still dreams about him so we know he’s still there, but there’s nothing we can do. Nicky’s tried everything already.”

An explosion cut Nile off before she could say anything. In an instant, she and Andy were on their feet and running back to the living quarters. There was smoke in the air and a small fire burning in the corner but nothing moved.

“Quynh!” Andy called. “Booker! Nicky!” There was no answer. “Nile check the back rooms.” Andy went for the living room and Nile headed for the bedroom. There was no one there. The kitchen was empty too.

“Book!” She heard Andy yell. Nile rushed back out to see Andy leaning over a bloody form on the couch. 

“There’s no one else here,” Nile told her as she came up next to her. She took one look at the body before them and almost threw up. It was Booker, or it had been. His chest was shredded, his guts, or what remained of them, were hanging out, and half of his head was missing. 

“Come on, come on, come on!” Andy chanted. She was staring at Booker’s body earnestly, like she could will him back to life. Nile wasn’t so sure he could come back, not with his head-

Booker coughed and then groaned. His one remaining eye fluttered open, trying to focus on Andy. “What-” he coughed. One shaky hand came up his head and pressed at where his left ear should be only to keep going until it hit his brain. 

Nile turned and threw up on the floor. 

“Quynh and Nicky are gone,” Andy told him, apparently unconcerned with the carnage. “And we’re going to get them back.”

\---

The day had not turned out like Nile had intended. It was getting to be a recurring theme in her life, one she didn’t expect to go away any time soon.

Booker had betrayed them. Well, technically she supposed Booker had betrayed all the others since he hadn’t known about her when he set them up, but it was all the same. The four of them were locked in a lab being treated as lab rats and Nile was the only one who could get them out.

So she did.

She was really getting the hang of this whole getting shot thing. It hardly slowed her down at this point.

When she burst into the lab, the four of them had been locked in an argument that stopped the second they saw her.

“Nile?!” Three voices rang out. Nicky just looked at her with grudging approval. 

Nile didn’t waste time on pleasantries. She took the keys to their cuffs off the body of a guard on the floor and unlocked Andy’s restraints. Nile let her unlock the others while she guarded the door, fully prepared to shoot whoever came through it next.

A loud crash erupted behind her and Nile spun, finger on the trigger only to find Nicky on top of Booker, bashing his face in. It took both Andy and Quynh to pull him off.

“Hey!” Quynh got in Nicky’s face. “Not the time Nicolo. We need to get out of here.” Nicky didn’t appear to hear her, his eyes fixed over her tiny frame at where Andy was helping Booker to his feet. If looks could kill…

“We’re leaving,” Andy ordered. “All of us,” she added with a sharp look at Nicky.

“We do not need all of us to get out of here,” Nicky countered. Both Andy and Quynh glared him into submission, though, and soon enough the five of them were shooting their way out of the lab. 

When they were free, when they had escaped the building and gotten somewhere safe enough to take a moment and breathe, Nicky pulled a sword of nowhere and cut Booker’s head off. 

Andy and Quynh shouted at him but he ignored them. Nile thought she might throw up again as she watched Quynh take Booker’s head and hold it in place against his neck until his body stitched itself back together. 

Nicky stood over him, sword in hand, the entire time. When Booker gasped back to life, Nicky placed his knee in his chest and his sword at his throat. “Every second I was in that lab was a second that no one was looking for Yusuf,” his voice was soft, gently even. Contrasted with the threat of the sword it was chilling. “You would have had me be locked up for a very long time.” The sword dug into Booker’s neck.

“Nicky,” Andy warned, but she didn’t move for a weapon of her own so Nicky ignored her.

“You would have him be left down there forever with no one to look for him.” The sword dug deeper into his neck and he started spitting up blood. Nicky’s eyes were cold. “Never again.”

Booker nodded, the motion tearing his throat against the blade even more. Nicky didn’t move until Booker stopped breathing. When he was very definitely dead, Nicky wiped his sword on Booker’s clothes to clean it and stood up.

“Do not call me again.” Nicky walked past Andy and Quynh without another word, got into the car and drove away. He had effectively stranded them but neither Andy nor Quynh looked too upset about that. Instead, they focused their attentions on Booker as he came back to life.

“Now,” Quynh crouched down next to him. “What  _ are _ we going to do about you?”

\---

Nile watched Andy and Quynh examine Copley’s research, both seemingly overwhelmed by the evidence that they had actually achieved some good with their long lives. 

“Well?” Copley asked after they’d looked their fill. 

“Well what?” Andy asked.

Copley struggled to speak. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

Andy and Quynh exchanged a look. “We want you to help us,” Quynh answered for them. “Cover our tracks so we can keep doing our jobs.”

Copley smiled, relieved. “I can do that.”

“And one more thing,” Nile added. Quynh and Andy looked at her strangely but Nile focused on Copley. “We need you to find someone for us.”

\---

Nicky had been less than ten miles off.

He’d almost hung up the phone when Nile called but she’d shouted Yusuf’s name fast enough that he paused long enough to hear her out. Nile quickly explained that Copley had found something on the ocean floor that had a strong possibility of being Yusuf’s iron coffin and when she’d told Nicky the location, he was already practically on top of him.

Quynh got them out there in time to see Nicky in scuba gear slip under the water with tools in hand. The boat he was on was small and didn’t have any equipment that could haul an iron coffin up from the bottom but he was clearly not going to wait long enough for them to get one. 

Nile stood on the boat next to Andy and Quynh and stared down at the water. They couldn’t see very far beneath the surface but none of them wanted to move. Nile was fairly certain the two women were only barely holding themselves back from going after Nicky. They’d given up on Yusuf, on any hope of finding him, and the guilt was clear on their faces. But so was the hope.

The captain of the boat Nicky was on told them he only had enough oxygen for an hour’s dive. It was almost two before they saw movement. Nile got a glimpse of a shadowy form that looked vaguely human before Quynh and Andy were both jumping overboard. Nile watched as they slipped beneath the surface, their shoes kicked off and Andy’s overshirt floating to the surface. The men and women on the two boats all rushed to the sides, some shouting, others preparing to go in after the two women. Nile tried to call them off but they ignored her.

A moment later, four heads broke the surface, two of them gasping for air. Quynh had Nicky’s limp form tucked under her arm as she swam towards the boat. Someone tossed a life preserving ring out to her. She put it around Nicky and let them haul him aboard. The next one tossed down she held for the man clutched in Andy’s arms. They were both gentle as they put it around him, treading water as they watched him be pulled up. 

Nicky awoke with a gasp and Nile turned from the women in the ocean to check on him. He brushed aside her hand and scrambled across the deck to the other man. He had long hair and a beard and his clothes looked like something out of a Renaissance Faire. Nile looked on as Nicky clutched at him, his hands cupping his face. “Destati, destati,” he murmured. Nile didn’t recognize the word but assumed it was Italian. 

The man didn’t move and he didn’t breathe. 

Andy and Quynh were both hauled up and they fell to their knees, out of breath, next to Nile. 

The man was still.

Nicky had started crying, his cries of ‘destati’ continued mixed with something that sounded like Arabic. He hunched over the man, their foreheads pressed together, the words a never ending stream from his lips.

Quynh grabbed Andy’s hand and held it tight. The two women were both shedding silent tears as they looked on. Nile shook her head, unable to believe the universe could be so cruel as to finally let Yusuf die only when Nicky had found him.

The deck was silent as the assembled crew quietly gave Nicky his peace and privacy. Nile was about to turn and go herself when there was a loud cough and a quiet, “ _ Nicolo _ .”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been absolutely blown away by the response to this fic, thank you so so so much to everyone who has commented and left kudos! I love you all

_ Yusuf _

Air. There was  _ air _ .

He sucked in lungfuls of it greedily. Hands clutched at him, grasping tightly. It was Nicolo, he knew, but he couldn’t see him. It was too bright. 

“ _ Yusuf _ ,” Nicolo cried. He hunched over Yusuf, his head blocking the worst of the sun, and suddenly Yusuf could see him.

“Amore mio,” he croaked. His throat was fine, as healed as the rest of him, but it was like the muscles had forgotten how to form words. Nicolo didn’t seem to mind though, his smile wide and bright even as his eyes watered. Yusuf lifted a hand to his cheek, Nicolo’s eyes falling shut, and gently wiped away the tears. “Don’t cry,” he whispered. He wasn’t sure what language it came out in. “You found me.”

Nicolo sagged on top of him in relief. “I found you,” he whispered back. 

Two new hands grabbed his head. Yusuf jerked, his position lying prone on the floor with Nicolo holding him in place not allowing him much movement, and the sun was back in his eyes. He squeezed them tightly and trusted that Nicolo wouldn’t let anyone hurt him. A moment later soft lips pressed to his forehead and stayed there. A drop of water hit his nose. “Do not ever do that again,” a woman whispered in his own language, one he had not heard in centuries except from Nicolo’s lips.

Yusuf tried to shade his face from the sun in order to see. When he realized what was happening, Nicolo moved to block the light entirely and suddenly Yusuf could see Andromache’s face upside over his. “Andromache,” he greeted weakly, trying to smile.

Andromache smiled, her eyes watery. “Hello, Yusuf,” she said. “It is very good to see you.”

Yusuf reached a hand out to his left, Andromache’s right, where he knew Quynh must be. He was rewarded with two hands clutching him tightly. “You are the most beautiful things I have ever seen,” he told them honestly, his eyes drifting back to Nicolo as he spoke. 

“Let’s get you below deck,” Quynh offered. She picked over the words slowly, the sounds unfamiliar in her mouth though Yusuf knew she spoke his language fluently. She and Andromache moved back slightly and let Nicolo help him to his feet. Yusuf was unsteady on his feet but Nicolo held him surely, his arm clamped tightly around his waist, and Yusuf had no troubles leaning heavily on him as they made their way down into the blessedly dark cabins below deck. 

A wave of exhaustion crashed over him all of a sudden, his already unsteady steps becoming even more of a hindrance until Nicolo swept him off his feet into his arms and carried him the rest of the way. “I am tired Nicolo,” he murmured.

“Sleep,” Nicolo urged. “I will be here when you wake up.”

“Promise?”

“Always.”

_ Andy _

Nicky disappeared into a cabin, Yusuf clutched carefully in his arms, and Andy hesitated only a moment before following. Quynh grabbed her hand and for a moment Andy feared she would try to hold her back but Quynh only squeezed tightly and walked next to her as they followed Nicky. 

Yusuf was laying on the bunk when they stepped into the cabin. Next to him, Nicky was stripping out of his wetsuit as fast as he possibly could, his eyes fixed on the man on the bed. 

“You need clothes,” Quynh noted. 

“They are on the other ship,” Nicky told her absently. He stripped completely before climbing into bed with Yusuf, his arms around him and his ear pressed to his chest. Nicky’s head moved up and down with the rise and fall of Yusuf’s breathing and Andy found herself mesmerized by it. 

“I will find them both something to wear,” Quynh touched her arm lightly. Andy nodded in acknowledgement but barely noticed when she left the small room. 

Yusuf was okay. They had found him. He was back where he belonged. 

It only took them five  _ hundred _ years. Half of his life so far. 

Andy had given up. She’d known he was down there and she had given up. Andy buried her face in her hands to smother a sudden sob.

“Stop.” Nicky’s voice was loud in the silence of the room. Andy lifted her head to find him unmoved, his eyes closed as he listened to Yusuf’s heartbeat. “It is done. He is here. There is no point in worrying over the past now. It will not do him any good.”

Andy blinked away a few tears and forced herself to speak. “It’s not that easy.” She was the leader. It was her job to keep them all safe and she’d failed. Even worse, she’d walked away.

“Make it that easy,” Nicky countered. “All that matters is moving forward, Andromache.” He held out one of his hands to her, his eyes still closed. Andy moved to her knees next to the bed and took it. Nicky squeezed briefly and then brought their joined hands to the center of Yusuf’s chest and Andy could feel the life in him. His skin was warm, his chest moved with his every breath, his heart beat soundly under her hand. Yusuf was alive. “He is  _ here _ ,” he said again. “He has been gone from the world a long time,” he added. “As have I. We will need you to teach us what we have missed.”

They needed her. Both of them. Andy swallowed and nodded. She’d failed them both before, but never again. “I will,” she promised solemnly.

_ Quynh _

Quynh wasn’t quite sure how but by the time she got back above deck, the two ships were pressed close together and joined by a gangplank. Rather than questioning either captain, she brushed past everyone and crossed to the other ship. “Where are his quarters?” One of the crew leads her to a small bunk that could have been anyone’s were it not for the two swords laying in the corner. Quynh gathered the few items that were not in the bag and stuffed them inside before grabbing it and the weapons and leaving the terrible room behind. 

No one stopped her or tried to speak to her as she crossed back to the other ship. Everyone seemed to have plenty of tasks to keep them busy though Quynh knew the second she was out of sight again, the work would stagger to a halt and the chatter would tick up.

“Quynh,” Nile stopped her with a hand on her arm. Quynh turned to her, a small amount of guilt welling up inside for having completely forgotten about the girl in the light of recent events. “Is Yusuf okay?”

Quynh smiled. New though she may be, Nile had a big heart and had clearly already welcomed Yusuf into it. “He will be,” she promised. “It will take time but he will be. Nicky will make sure of it.” She paused. “And so will we.” Nile nodded and took half a step back as if to separate herself from Quynh and the others. Quynh stopped her with a firm grip on her shoulder. “All of us. We are a team and a family and  _ we _ will make sure Yusuf is okay. That includes you, Nile.”

Nile straightened her shoulders and nodded. “And Booker?”

There was that big heart again, Quynh mused. “That is up to Nicky.” She lifted the bag. “They need clothes.” Nile blinked as if seeing the bag for the first time and quickly moved out of Quynh’s way.

“Oh yeah, of course, sorry.”

“He is sleeping,” Quynh told her. “We should be ready to move by the time we get back to the port.” 

“I’ll get us moving,” Nile promised.

Quynh touched her arm in thanks and hurried back to the cabin. Inside, she paused briefly at the sight of Andy on her knees, her hand pressed to Yusuf’s chest and her head on top of Nicky’s, before closing the door to ensure their privacy.

Andy turned around at the sound and Quynh saw the tears still in her eyes. Nicky didn’t move. 

“I brought your stuff,” Quynh told him. Nicky didn’t react. “He’s still wet, Nicolo,” she reminded him gently. Nicky’s eyes shot open like he hadn’t noticed the wet cloth under his cheek. 

He looked from the bag in Quynh’s hand to Yusuf and back but he didn’t move. Quynh wasn’t sure he’d be moving anytime soon, truthfully. 

She dropped the bag to the floor and started going through it. Thankfully, Nicky was an organized packer and she found a full set of clothes rather quickly. Andy took it from her and handed them over to Nicky while Quynh kept searching for a second pair. When she found it, some sweats and a large t-shirt, something warm and comfortable, she stood up only to find Nicky struggling into his clothes as best he could without leaving Yusuf’s side.

“Nicolo,” she said quietly. Nicky’s movements paused. “Take a moment. It is alright.”

Nicky closed his eyes. If Quynh didn’t know him any better she’d say he looked like he was praying. After a moment he climbed out of the bed and pulled on the rest of his clothes with his newfound freedom of movement. As soon as he left Yusuf’s side, Quynh took over. She sat down next to Yusuf and pressed her hand to his chest and felt his heartbeat strong under her touch. Her shoulders sagged as the undeniable finally registered. She’d held his hand and heard his voice on the deck earlier but it still hadn’t quite seemed real until this moment. Quynh pressed a firm kiss to his forehead and raked her hand through his hair. It was longer and wilder than she remembered. 

Nicky and Andy let her have a moment but when she stood up, they moved in. Andy grabbed his shoulders to sit him up and Quynh reached out to steady him. “Nicolo,” he murmured, the movement waking him up.

“I am here, my love,” Nicky replied. Or at least, Quynh was fairly certain that’s what he’d said. There was a time when all of them had been equally fluent in each other’s native languages but Quynh hadn’t had the chance to practice Yusuf’s in a long time and her memory wasn’t as good as Andy’s when it came to the subject. Nicky seemed to have no trouble with it, though, murmuring soft words in his lilting accent. Together, they pulled the tattered remains of Yusuf’s shirt from him. Andy ran one of Nicky’s shirts over his back and chest to try and dry him off a little bit and then Nicky was helping Yusuf into the shirt Quynh had laid out. 

“Your accent is terrible,” Yusuf mumbled halfway through, as he always did when Nicky spoke his language. Nicky choked out a wet laugh. 

“My accent is romantic,” he countered, as Quynh knew he would. Yusuf leaned forward and pressed his forehead into Nicky’s neck, his hands clutching at his hair lazily in his sleepy movements. Nicky’s eyes closed and he clutched Yusuf back with shaky hands. 

Quynh shared a look with Andy and they came to a silent agreement. Without a word, they rose to their feet and slipped out of the room.

_ Nile _

They needed to get back to land, that much Nile knew. But two entire ships full of people had just seen Nicky come back to life not to mention three people had gone into the water and four had come out. 

There would be questions, there had to be. And Nile had no idea how to answer them or how to contain this.

The second Quynh disappeared below deck, the frantic movement on both ships stuttered to a halt, everyone’s attention on the closed door and who lay behind it. 

“So,” the captain of the ship Nile, Andy, and Quynh had come out here on came up next to her. Nile waited but he didn’t say anything else. A moment later, the captain of the other ship came up on her other side.

“So,” he too said. 

They looked at each other over her head and Nile was surprised to see smiles on their faces. They both turned slightly giddy a moment later until they were breathless with laughter.

Nile stepped back to stare at them both. “What?”

“We found him,” one of them said. 

“Holy shit, we actually found him,” the other replied.

“ _ What _ ?” 

They turned to her. “Yusuf. We found Yusuf.”

Nile stared at the man who captained Nicky’s ship. “Wait. You knew?” She blinked and turned to the other man. “And you?”

They nodded. The man to her left looked over at his ship with a fond gaze. “We’ve been looking for him for a long time.”

“I don’t understand.”

The man on her right gestured between himself and the other man. “Our ancestors were on the ship that put him in the water,” he explained. “Ever since then, our families have been looking for him.”

Nile tried to process that. “But why? If your ancestors…”

They laughed. “Nicky’s very persuasive.” One of them shrugged. “I mean, in recent generations we wanted to help obviously. Once Nicky proved what he could do and we knew there was someone trapped, we  _ had  _ to help, but before that…”

“Let’s just say there’s a reason we’re the only two left?” 

Nile could read between the lines just fine. Nicky had made his way through the crew of the men who sealed Yusuf in his coffin and dumped him overboard until he found men willing to help him look. She assumed willing was a generous term. Just as she assumed those who weren’t didn’t have any descendents to help Nicky look. 

One of them clapped a friendly hand on her shoulder. “You’re new to all of this, aren’t you?” Nile only nodded. “You’ll get used to it. We all did.” He gestured to their combined crews. “Come on. We’ll head back to port now. You might want to get some rest until we get there.” 

Nile watched him go, watched the crews spring into actual action, and the two ships separated before turning back towards shore. After a moment where she only felt in the way, Nile made her way below deck, wary of intruding. She found Andy and Quynh in the first room she came across. It was a small break room and Nile helped herself to some coffee before sitting down next to them. “How are you two doing?”

“It’s, uh,” Andy laughed. “It’s been an interesting day.”

Quynh smiled. “We’ll be okay.” 

Nile took her word for it and let the rest of their journey pass in comfortable silence. When the captain came down to tell them they had docked, Nile let Andy shepherd her upstairs while Quynh relayed the news to Nicky and Yusuf.

They made their way off the ship and into a nearby coffee shop before Quynh joined them. Nile was halfway through her iced coffee when she spotted the two men. They were moving slowly across the deck of the ship, Nicky holding Yusuf tightly though it didn’t look like Yusuf needed the aid anymore. Nile watched as they made their way off the ship and shuffled along the pier. She’d look away if Andy and Quynh weren’t also fixed on the sight.

When the men were close enough to hear, Yusuf stepped out of Nicky’s grasp and held his arms out. His lips quirked in a rakish smile and he said something in that language that Nile didn’t know. There was a single beat, a moment where time seemed to stand still, and then both Andy and Quynh were on their feet, their chairs shoved back by the motion, and they were rushing into Yusuf’s arms. He wrapped his arms around them both as best he could as they clutched at him tightly. Behind him, Nile saw Nicky put his hands on Yusuf’s hips and his forehead into the back of his head. She wasn’t sure Nicky had actually stopped touching him yet. 

She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the four of them. Andy and Quynh had stressed the importance of not leaving a trail but Nile didn’t think they’d care in this case. She hesitated only a moment before sending it to Booker, no message attached.

His response came just a moment later:  _ I’m glad _ .

“Nile.”

Nile looked up at her name to see Yusuf standing next to her. She jumped to her feet. “Hi.”

He smiled. “I have seen you in my dreams.” His English was halting, like he’d forgotten it, but his voice was warm and wrapped around her like a hug. A moment later, his arms followed the way of his voice and he pulled her close. Their hug didn’t last nearly as long as the others’ did but Nile felt grateful for it. 

“It’s really nice to meet you,” she told him honestly.

_ Nicky _

Yusuf balked at the hotel. He’d watched the women walk in and taken a full step back, his eyes wide. Nicky saw it, because Nicky hadn’t looked away from him for a single moment yet, and led him away. Somehow they’d found themselves at the end of the pier, nothing before them but the shimmering blue water.

Nicky would very happily never go near the ocean ever again. Just the sight of it turned his stomach even though Yusuf was standing next to him. 

_ Yusuf was standing next to him _ .

It would take some time to adjust to. In the meantime, Nicky refused to apologize for being clingy. He let Yusuf stare out at the water and attached himself to his back, his arms wrapping around Yusuf’s waist. They would need to cut his hair. And give him a bath. But Nicky didn’t care about any of that right now.

“I never stopped looking for you,” he murmured in Yusuf’s Arabic. It was an antiquated version of the modern language with a distinct regional dialect that Nicky hadn’t let himself forget. It had been centuries since he’d been able to truly speak it with another person, since Andy had stopped responding to him in it, but it was still fresh on his tongue. 

“I know,” Yusuf replied. “I have had my dreams, Nicolo. They were brief and far between but I saw you. In Booker’s eyes and in Nile’s. I knew you were coming for me. I just had to be patient.”

“I’m sorry I took so long.”

Yusuf turned in his arms and cupped Nicky’s face gently. “Do not apologize. I do not want to hear that word from your lips.” Nicky might have protested, might have reminded Yusuf just how long Nicky had taken to find him, just how long Yusuf had had to suffer because Nicky wasn’t better at searching, but Yusuf kissed him and Nicky didn’t care about words anymore.

It was a terrible kiss.

It had been half a millennia since either one of them had had a kiss and they’d clearly forgotten a few things.

Nicky could not have cared less. He certainly wasn’t planning to pull away any time soon and from the way Yusuf was pressing up against him, neither did he. After a while, his lungs burned with the need to breathe but Nicky ignored it. If he died from suffocation from kissing Yusuf, it would be worth it.

Eventually, though, Yusuf pulled away. He was panting lightly, his eyes wide open as he sucked in gasps of air. After a moment, his breathing evened out and he smiled. “Hello, love.”

Nicky kissed him again, this time making sure to pull back before they got too far. It was a bit like riding a bike, the familiar motions coming back to them the longer they kissed. There was a time when Nicky knew Yusuf’s lips better than anything and if he didn’t remember, he was certainly going to enjoy learning them all over again.

Eventually, they slowed to a stop until they were simply sharing breath. The sun set behind them and the night air cooled around them and they didn’t move. “Why the pier?” Nicky asked. 

“There is wind. And the sun was high in the sky,” Yusuf answered. “And I can see the water below me. I am above it. I am not there anymore.”

“No,” Nicky promised earnestly. “You are not. And you never will be again.”

“Will you protect me?”

“Always,” Nicky promised. 

He could only hope desperately that he would be able to keep his promise this time.


End file.
